


Sheperd's Stay

by mz_hyde



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-21
Updated: 2013-03-21
Packaged: 2017-12-05 23:11:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/728974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mz_hyde/pseuds/mz_hyde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Shepherd AU. It begins as a night of comfort, it becomes a night Ruby and David will never speak of again; yet can't deny they enjoyed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sheperd's Stay

**Author's Note:**

> One of my fills for the OUAT kink meme on LJ.

"I just don't understand it. How can the place that's supposed to feel like home feel like anything but?" David asked as he sat beside Ruby at the inn's dining room table, barely having touched the tea she had made for him.

"I think I'm the wrong girl to ask. Anywhere that isn't here could feel like home to me. I feel completely trapped here."

"Because of your grandmother?"

"She's part of it," Ruby admitted, relieved Granny was at the diner and wouldn't hear that.

"I can understand feeling trapped here. Mary Margaret won't talk to me, I don't blame her. But I can't talk to Kathryn either. She's been amazing through this and here I can't remember anything about our life together and I can't stop thinking of another woman. I almost don't know if I want to remember who I was now, if this is who I am now, he must've been an even bigger jerk."

"You're not a jerk. You're just having a rougher time than most. You can't be so hard on yourself. As for Kathryn, clearly you've at least told her you need to think about things, that's only fair. And Mary Margaret, well, something tells me she'll come around if you really choose her."

"Really?"

Ruby scoffed, unable to believe he couldn't see that. "Look, you're handsome, you're charming, you're strong; you're just not the kind of guy most girls could resist."

That almost made him smile. "Thanks, Ruby. I guess you were right when you said I came to the right place tonight."

She grinned. "I do my best."

"And thank you for making sure I wasn't alone tonight." She had been kind in making him that tea and sitting and talking with him, but he had caught on to why. He couldn't claim he minded though, the company had been nice. Even if the last thing he needed at the moment was to see this kindness as more than it was. Maybe it was because he felt so lonely, or maybe because Mary Margaret hadn't been as willing as he had been to try to make whatever it was they had work, or maybe it was because he felt very little in the way of romantic love for his wife. And there Ruby was, trying to cheer him up, not leaving his side for longer than she had to, even quite literally holding his hand here and there.

"Happy customers are good for business," Ruby told him, hoping to deflect from what she realized she was beginning to see in his blue eyes. He was attractive alright, but he clearly wasn't in a good place and she considered Mary Margaret a friend. She couldn't do what she might normally do here. Graham? Gold? Either would be a given. One had easy access to an array of handcuffs she found quite delightful when used for recreational purposes and the other had a habit of forgetting a few debts when she put her own charms to work. But David? Part of her wanted to believe she was better than that, even if there seemed to be a louder, more demanding part of her which was ready to prove otherwise.

"I'm a lot happier here, now, than I thought I would be," he admitted.

"I'm glad I could help." Ruby had no idea how else to respond to that. This certainly wasn't she was used to, especially not from those who so rarely stayed at the inn.

"Ruby," he sighed as he raised his hand to cup her cheek. "Will you promise me something?"

Stunned she hadn't already pulled away, she asked, "What?" as she found herself noticing only then the warmth of his hand and just how blue his eyes were.

"Promise me you'll continue to make sure I won't be alone tonight." Maybe this was the last thing he should be doing, and maybe she was the last person he should be asking, but he couldn't stop feeling as though he needed to feel connected to someone tonight. It wasn't love he was after, no happily ever after this time, just someone who would share this night with him, someone who knew most of his story and who even then wasn't looking at him in judgment for it.

Her heart beating faster at both his warm touch and the longing in his eyes, she answered, "I promise." Half the time Ruby wasn't even sure she honestly believed in love, but so far she had never knowingly slept with a married man and she had the distinct impression that was about to change. If Mary Margaret had chosen him he would have been with her, no question. And if he loved his wife he would have been home with her. Instead he was there, with her, his face mere inches from her own and seemingly asking her to stay with him through the night.

In a moment he closed the gap between them, letting his hand slip around for his fingers to tangle in her black and red hair, and kissed her with all the pent up need he had been feeling for these past several weeks.

As much as Ruby partly wanted to kick herself for this, she kissed David back with equal fervor. First had been the fierce claim of lips that she hoped she would never admit to having been waiting for, and then she had instantly met his tongue when she felt it against her lips. She had a good idea he was only doing this because he needed something he could finally consider real. Even if only for a night. And as she slanted her mouth against his parted her lips even more under his questing tongue, she couldn't deny how well she knew that feeling all too well herself.

How long it had been until they finally began to part, both could only guess. Breathing heavily, their foreheads touching, Ruby was the first to speak. Still mostly breathless, she told him, "I know what this is, and I know what it's like to be so desperate to feel like you have to have something real to cling to, even if it's just for an hour or a night... I only ask one thing."

"What?" he asked.

"Mary Margaret, Granny, even your wife... no one can know about this. After tonight we never mention it again, not even to each other." She felt bad enough at the idea of sleeping with the guy Mary Margaret was clearly crazy about. But Ruby hadn't been lying when she said she knew part of what David was feeling. She knew it all too well and all too often, hence her reputation. But this time she saw it as a way for them to sort of help each other out. If nothing else it was at least one way for her to rationalize it to herself.

"Agreed," he nodded. He hadn't wanted to hurt anyone, not even in the first place. None of this was about revenge. Instead he longed for a kindred spirit and he felt he had found it tonight in Ruby. So much so in fact that he asked, "Can I ask you something in return?"

She nodded. "Of course."

"Why do I already feel better just being here with you?"

Ruby just smiled as she sat back in her seat, pondering that for a moment. Finally she decided she had the closest thing to an answer. "Maybe you're finally getting a glimpse of how well I'm able to take care of people. I don't even really mean to most of the time, and it's always in different ways. Tonight, being your sort of companion, is how I've agreed to help you. Plus it's not like the reasons you came here are upstairs. Not even Granny's here. Just me. But speaking of, how about I show you back up to your room?"

David found himself almost smiling even as she stood from her seat. "Are you sure your grandmother won't notice when she comes home?"

Ruby shook her head. "She'll see my car out front and figure I'm asleep. She sleeps like a rock herself and with our rooms, yours and mine, at opposite end of the hall from hers, I'm pretty sure she won't hear anything if we're quiet."

David decided that answer was good enough for him and was soon letting Ruby lead him in hand up the stairs and to his room. It still seemed small to him even if there was clearly enough room for the dresser, desk, and the perfectly made queen size bed. But this time he didn't feel as though the walls were closing in. Rather it felt cozy and warm, almost like its own place in some distant land only Ruby and he knew of. There was almost part of him that wished it could stay that way and that this could remain their little world. Here seemed to be an escape, no matter how brief, from the judgment, pain, betrayal, responsibility. Here there seemed to only be comfort and compassion and understanding. And on top of all of that, Ruby was proving she was willing to keep his secret, their secret. He almost wondered if they had been like this before. It seemed familiar, her keeping a valuable secret of his anyway.

"You know, it's been a while since I was asked to keep someone company like this," Ruby told him as he closed and locked the door behind them. "Do you want to shower or do you just want to go to bed?"

"Right now, this minute, I just need this again," he answered as he turned back to her and let his hands come up to gently grasp the sides of her face and pull her into another kiss which Ruby, to his relief, seemed all too eager to return.

As she curled her arms around his body in return, Ruby had a feeling she was about to take gold in a Worst Friend Ever competition. But she couldn't help but also feel Mary Margaret had made her choice; and this had been David's in return. Choosing rather to focus on the strong, firm man whose body was pressed to her own, she was relieved to find there was no alcohol to be tasted on his tongue as it twined once again with hers. One could argue he may not have been in his right mind, but he clearly hadn't been drinking. That much was certainly comforting. Ruby didn't want to be the only one to remember this in the morning, even if they had already agreed to never speak of it again.

David was relieved to find she hadn't tried to pull away, and he was even more relieved to feel her pressing her body to his as their kiss deepened. Her mouth tasted like strawberries and coffee and her hair smelled of the forest. He found himself trying to commit it all to memory. If this were to truly be their only night, there wasn't any part of it he didn't want to be able to remember.

The room had seemed to grow increasingly warmer for Ruby, and she couldn't help but wonder if the same might be true for him. He still had his jacket on after all. She supposed she should do something about at least that.

David smiled against her lips when he felt her arms slip from his neck only for her nimble fingers to push his jacket from his shoulders. He let his hands leave her face then, certain now she wouldn't pull away for more than a matter of seconds if she pulled away at all. He let the jacket fall to the floor behind him and let his hands then slip up under the hem of the small collection of shirts she was wearing. Either she really hadn't expected her night to end this way or she had hoped for her companion to work for his prize. He didn't mind. If anything it made it seem like a challenge, and if there was one thing he seemed to be dangerously attracted to, it was a good challenge.

Just like that Ruby broke their kiss and stared into his eyes even as goosebumps rose on her skin beneath his touch. This had mostly been his idea, yet Ruby couldn't help but wonder if now that it was getting much more real that he might change his mind. And if he wasn't about to change his mind then this would at least help should he take that next step and lift any or all of her shirts off.

"Do you want to stop?" he asked her, unsure why she had pulled away from him. Had this been a test? Or had she just decided that she couldn't do this with him after all? He wouldn't blame her, but he hadn't wanted this to be over yet either.

She shook her head. "I wasn't sure if you did. I just figured now would be a better time for you to decide that; if you did. Before it's really too late."

With that David slipped his hands around to the small of her back and told her, "It's already too late for me, Ruby. I feel like you know every possible thing there is to know about me. Every dirty secret, every fear. I don't know why, but I do. When I look at you I just know I can trust you with all of them and I feel more comfortable here with you than I think I've felt since I woke up."

"No pressure," she chuckled, almost unable to believe this. But she knew she felt the same when she even thought of him. And like him, she didn't know why either. They hadn't even met before his coma as far as she knew. Yet there was an overwhelming sense of trust there, she could feel it herself. Maybe there had been some other secret along the way they had shared. She supposed then this really was about to be one more.

"I didn't say that for you to feel pressured."

"I know," she smiled as she moved close to him again, toying with the hem of his own shirt. "That's why I'm not changing my mind either. I'm here because, gods help me, I want to be."

"You really do enjoy helping people, don't you?" he asked, unable to keep a smile of his own completely from his lips.

"Some more than others, I guess," she admitted before turning her attention to the buttons of his shirt and undoing just enough before she lifted it and the t-shirt he was wearing beneath off.

That time David smiled, taking in the feel of her fingertips and short nails as they brushed his skin when she lifted his shirt from him. David repaid the favor in an instant, enjoying the sight of her red theme seeming to carry over even into her under things. He couldn't be sure why her red lace bra and then the matching panties when she shimmied out of her tight pants amused him, but her smirk seemed to imply she didn't mind. She was beautiful and she knew it, and tonight she would let herself be his.

"You like?" she asked, putting a hand on her hip and all but posing for him when she caught him staring.

He laughed, and then nodded. "Yeah, I do."

"Maybe you should show me how much," she grinned as she turned her attention to his jeans and almost immediately bringing her hands to undo his belt.

He caught her mouth easily when she looked back up at him and swallowed the soft gasp that escaped her.

Together they worked a bit quicker to get each other out of their remaining clothes, only breaking their kiss as they needed to. David was the first to sit when they moved back to the bed and Ruby wasted no time climbing onto his lap and straddling him. If he wanted comforting, he had come to the right girl and Ruby was sure she was about to give him at least a bit of what she doubted any of the others could. Once he answered a certain question one last time, that was.

Staring into his eyes once she broke their kiss, Ruby asked him once again, "Are you sure you still want me tonight? Absolute last, last chance."

David couldn't believe she was asking, particularly then. She was sitting naked in his arms, warm and clearly wanting, and he was sure she could feel just how ready at least part of him was for this. "More than want," he answered as he took that moment to push some of her dark and red hair back from her face. "I need you tonight. I feel like you're the closest thing I have to a real friend now."

Ruby smiled, but replied, "Most friends don't do what it seems we're really about to."

"Then I guess we've got a special kind of friendship. Unless this is your way of saying you've changed your mind?"

Ruby almost hated that it wasn't. "I just needed to know you're really, completely, sure about this."

"I am," he told her, his eyes still on hers.

With a deep breath, Ruby gave a single nod and canted forward to kiss him once more, her arms lacing around his shoulders as she finally let her instincts take over and shut off any of her thoughts which didn't center completely on David and his body.

Never breaking the kiss, David hooked a hand beneath one of her thighs and gently swung them around to make them more comfortable on the bed. The action caused Ruby to shift higher on him and they both groaned as her warm and wet center slid along his erection. Sitting up, though keeping her in the hold of one arm, David let his right hand slide down her flawless skin. Down her shoulder, over her breast, taking her gasp when his palm brushed against the hardened peak of her nipple. He let his hand venture further until it was finally between them, until he felt her hips buck against it. He could feel the heat pouring off of her and only then did he break their kiss to trail his lips over her cheek, along the line of her jaw, to just below her ear, until finally kissing his way down her neck.

Ruby moaned softly all the while, her hands clinging to his broad shoulders, her eyes still closed as she felt his fingers so close to where she wanted them most in that moment.

Taking the next involuntary thrust of her hips as his cue, David slid one finger into her, then he let the second follow. She clenched as he nipped at her collarbone and she let her head fall slightly back at the pleasure coursing through her when she felt his fingers curling upwards. She moaned again when they began to move slowly and surely. She wouldn't wonder how he seemed to already know how to touch her, but rather only on how long he would draw this teasing out. His strong hand, his soft lips, the solidness of his body against hers, all felt amazing to her, but she was desperate for more. She was all but riding his fingers by the time his mouth latched on to a taught nipple and she had to bite her lip to keep from calling out.

Faster David let his fingers move and the harder her let his lips suckle at her breast, deciding to let her otherwise take the lead as it seemed clear she was getting closer. As painful as his cock was sure to be at this rate, he didn't care. Ruby was moaning for him, seconds from coming from just his hand and desperate for more. Maybe he was feeling greedy, but this could truly be their one night. He wanted her to know what being with him could really be. He wanted to feel her come undone around his fingers, he wanted to taste her as she came on his tongue, and finally to know what it would feel like to have those same muscles coil around his cock.

Ruby couldn't help the next moan that escaped her, she couldn't even care if Granny had come home. David's unrelenting mouth and hand had robbed any thought from her clouded mind. With her body completely tense, she knew the door could have opened then and there she still wouldn't have cared, not so long as David stayed exactly where he was. In a second she felt his thumb pressed to her clit, and with just another twist of her hips, Ruby cried out again as her orgasm claimed her.

David left his hand where it was, letting her ride out her wave, but took his mouth back to pepper kisses along the valley between her breasts.

As Ruby's body began to calm, she felt first how warm she was, noticing the light sheen of sweat covering her skin next. And then there was the realization that she was still atop David's lap. And that David had made her come.

The lust remained in her eyes as he looked to her again, much to his relief. Slowly, he slipped his hand from her and kissed her lips again. She kissed him back though she still seemed a bit breathless and he took that moment to lift her higher against him again to flip them and lay her beneath his body.

Ruby groaned, reaching for him, not wanting to break the kiss. His hand had felt incredible and she was sure he knew it, but she couldn't deny her wonder at how much better his cock might feel. Having seen it, and certainly feeling it against her again, she knew he wasn't a small man, and she was happy to already begin parting her thighs at the welcome invasion.

That time David moaned as he felt her grind against him. He knew it would be so easy to take her then, the rest of his body begging for it as much as she seemed to be, but he still felt greedy. He wanted to taste her, reminded he may never have this chance again. The idea and mental image of her legs hooked over his shoulders as she clung to his short hair was too much to pass up. With that in mind, he broke their kiss again, smiling slightly at her groan of protest.

"I think you'll like this more," he promised as he kissed a trail down the length of her long, lean body.

Ruby didn't doubt it, not with as certain as he seemed, but she still wanted more. She wasn't used to it being this drawn out with the others she had been with before. She was impatient, usually got herself started first and let the others finish her off. But David seemed intent on making this last as long as he could. Part of her was grateful, but the rest of her just wanted to feel him buried to the hilt inside of her.

David let himself breathe in the scent of her arousal, wanting to commit it to memory with the rest of this. His cock twitched beneath him as the tip of his tongue met her folds and then again when she moaned. His friend and, arguably, the most beautiful waitress in town was moaning again for him. Her hips thrusting towards his ministrations shook him from his brief daze, and he went about setting her long, slender legs over his shoulders, welcoming the bruises he was almost sure the balls of her feet might leave.

As his tongue danced over and inside of her, Ruby found herself becoming certain she very well might go insane from this. Not only was David incredibly easy on the eyes, but now she would have to remind herself how not to have her legs fall open at the mere sight of him. These memories wouldn't be going anywhere any time soon and he was proving to be entirely too good at this.

David sped his pace and lapped at her juices before finally deciding to take pity on the writhing girl. He moved closer, putting his hands to hips to hold her gently in place as he gave her clit the similar attention he had previously given to her nipple.

Not as suddenly as the one before it, but Ruby could feel her next orgasm building as David's attentions became more focused. One hand digging into the pillow behind her and her other reaching for his head, her shoulders pressed further down into the mattress as she raised her hips again. "David," she sighed out. Her eyes closing again, that familiar pleasure overwhelming her, she quickly came again with a gasp and a sharp shudder, David not even seeming to mind as her hips bucked against his face once more.

David lapped at her again until she came down from her high, savoring the sweet taste of her. He hated to admit he would miss this, but if there was one thing he had learned tonight, it was that he would. He couldn't remember a night like this with Kathryn and he certainly hadn't had the chance to have one like it with Mary Margaret. Yet here Ruby was, her eyes opening and her hand reaching for him yet again.

"How much longer are you going to make me wait to really feel you?" Ruby asked him. She was sure she would be sore in the morning, but she didn't care. This had been her idea as much as it had been his and she also knew as well as he did that this would be their one chance to enjoy being together.

He smiled as he moved atop her once again. That was a question he had hoped she would ask. "Not long now."

With his face just above hers, Ruby pulled him into another kiss, happy even to taste herself on his mouth. This was real, there was no going back, and she ground herself against him once more as if to prove how satisfied she was with those facts.

Letting his tongue seek hers out once more, David steadied himself with one arm on the bed as positioned himself between her legs and slowly began to guide himself into her. He swallowed her subsequent moan as she began to meet his hips, her body seemingly welcoming him.

Ruby curled her hands around David's shoulders and wrapped her legs around his hips, wanting to hold him as close as she could. He was filling her to near perfection and she could only wait for him to begin to move again.

David groaned as he took the moment to revel in feeling her surrounding him, tightening around him, before he slowly rose up to thrust into her. Ruby and he groaned in unison that time, neither wishing to abandon the kiss as they began to find their rhythm. Already David knew he wouldn't last as long as he would hope or ordinarily might have, but so far, as Ruby's hips met his faster, he doubted she minded.

With her hands having moved from his shoulders to the sides of his face, Ruby tried to cling tighter to David even as she broke their kiss, attempting to turn his mouth's attention back to her neck. He took the hint easily and she let her nails rake down his sides as he thrust home once more. If he was aiming to ruin her for any of the other Storybrooke men, she decided he was about halfway there.

David had long since forgotten how quiet they were supposed to be, Ruby's own moans partly to blame as she hadn't been able to remain silent herself. His arm began to shake with the effort it was taking to keep his body positioned just above hers and with his own promised release finally approaching. He slowed his thrusts only enough to allow himself to slip his free hand between them again, letting the tip of his middle finger rub against where she was sure to still be most sensitive, wanting her right there with him.

Ruby moaned his name again, her hips giving another buck towards his own before she shuddered again, her third orgasm of the night washing over her.

David stayed still all the while, his cock as deep inside of her as it could be, reveling in feeling her tight muscles coil rapidly around him. Only when that unmistakable look of contentment returned to her face did he take his hand back and finally thrust out and in once, twice more until letting his own release spill into her.

For a long moment afterwards all they could seem to do was stare at one another as they regained their breath. Even as he slowly moved to her side, Ruby found that she didn't want to have to stop touching him. She was relieved that David didn't seem to want her to stop either.

"So was this your plan?" she asked him finally, barely above a whisper.

Confused, he asked, "What do you mean?"

She smirked. "Making sure I wouldn't leave your side tonight by making sure I wouldn't be able to move at all?" He had to have known exactly how many of her muscles he had caused to seemingly turn to jelly and which would likely be burning tomorrow.

David tried not to laugh. "Did it work?"

Ruby moved closer until she was snuggled against his chest. "I would've stayed anyway. All you had to do was ask, which you did."

David smiled as he curled his arms around her. "Well then I guess I know in case there's a next time."

Ruby doubted there would be a next time but she nodded all the same. This was who she was, she supposed, the friend who would do quite possibly anything to help another friend. True this particular brand of help was rare and could likely never be spoken of again, but she couldn't claim to regret it. David was amazing, and he had felt amazing, and she found herself smiling again as he pulled the blanket up to cover the both of them. They would deal with whatever sense of normalcy they could pretend to go back to tomorrow. For now she was happy to fall asleep in David's warm embrace.

The End


End file.
